Falmouth Mile

Falmouth, MA

August 16, 1997

Pyrah and Shearer Break 4:00

Jason Pyrah, a former Brigham Young University miler and a member of the U.S. World Championship Track & Field Team, and Darin Shearer, a former Harvard University standout, became the first two runners to break 4:00 in the Falmouth Mile.

Running before a large crowd ringing the Falmouth High School track, Pyrah ran second for three laps behind the assigned "rabbit," James Njoroge of Kenya, who set a 60 second pace for each of the first three quarters. When Njoroge dropped out, Pyrah took control. Pyrah, who has a 3:56:33 to his credit this year and was third in the 1500 at the U.S. Championships this summer, was particularly impressed by the size of the audience. "We definitely need more races of this type (the mile) in conjunction with road races. It seems to bring out a great crowd," he commented.

For Shearer, who competes for the Central Mass Striders and was a last minute addition to the field, it was the culmination of a several year quest to break 4-minute mile. It was also done under difficult circumstances as Shearer, who was not certain he would be allowed to compete, had run a 10,000 meter road race just six days previous. (Despite running 7:57 at the 3000 earlier this summer, race officials had not included Shearer in the group of the original ten runners selected to compete in the Falmouth Mile.)

"This is something that I've been trying to do for eight years," said Shearer. "First I thought I would do it in high school. Then I thought it would happen in college. Maybe I wasn't fit to break it or maybe I never got into the right kind of race, but breaking 4:00 in my home state has special meaning for me."

In the women's mile, Alisa Hill edged Nathalie Cole and Kathy Franey to win the Falmouth Mile for a second time.

Men's Mile

1 Jason Pyrah 3:58:39 2 Darin Shearer 3:59:76 3 Jim Sorensen 4:01:19 4 Brian Baker 4:03:42 5 Mark Slvieri 4:04:41 6 Eddie Terrell 4:07:43 7 Danny Maas 4:08:68 8 Mike Michno 4:09:30

Women's Mile

1 Alisa Hill 4:37:35 2 Nathalie Cote 4:37:63 3 Kathy Franey 4:38:79 4 Kari Bertrand 4:39:08 5 Courtney Babcock 4:42:44 6 Sarah Dillbaugh 4:42:51 7 Niam Beime 4:43:38 8 Kim McGreevy 4:44:60 9 Christine Gentile 5:08:36